Heretofore there is known a patented dispensing apparatus, the patent application of which was filed by the applicant of the present patent application. In this dispensing apparatus a dispensing tip is fitted and attached to a dispensing tip attachment opening in a bottom end section of a nozzle, and a plunger within a cylinder that communicates with the nozzle is slid, to thereby suction or discharge a liquid into the dispensing tip through the bottom end thereof (Patent Document 1 to Patent Document 4).
However, the mechanisms of the cylinder, the plunger, and the like, used in the above dispensing apparatus are components manufactured at a high level of precision such as an injection syringe. In particular, variation in the inner capacity of the cylinder basically corresponds to variation in the inner capacity of the dispensing tip, and it is necessary to transmit such that there is no looseness in the joining section between the plunger and the driving apparatus of the plunger. Moreover, the suctioning/discharging mechanism and the dispensing tip are fitted together so that there is no leakage of gas or liquid. Consequently, there is concern that a high level of product quality management is needed. Furthermore, there is a problem in that since a cylinder with a capacity corresponding to the capacity of the dispensing tip is needed to control suction and discharge of the dispensing tip, a larger apparatus is needed in order to cope with liquid of a large volume.
On the other hand, heretofore there is known a dropper that is capable of accommodating liquid or gas in the interior thereof surrounded by wall faces made of rubber or the like, and that suctions or discharges the liquid when the wall faces are deformed by manually pressing. However, since this dropper is operated manually, a single user can only operate one dropper, and consequently simultaneous processing cannot be performed using a number of droppers. Moreover, since deformation in the dropper differs depending on the magnitude of the operating force, the direction of the force, and the position where the force is applied, it is difficult with manual operation of the dropper to perform quantitively precise processing, and repeat such processing at a high level of reproducibility.
As a remedial measure, there is a method of performing direct transfer from container to container without use of a dispensing tip. However, while this method simplifies the structure of the apparatus, a sufficient number of operators are required. Moreover there is a problem of the possibility of contamination due to container to container contact, so that reliability is not high.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent No. 3115501
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent No. 3739953
Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent No. 3630493
Patent Document 4: Japanese Patent No. 3682302